


scanning the sky, making a map (or: A Flamsteed Designation)

by Vehka



Category: Tenet (2020)
Genre: Astrophysics, M/M, Physics, Post-Canon, Time Travel, Yearning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:14:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26172547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vehka/pseuds/Vehka
Summary: “There is this thing”, you say and your words are groggy, you are almost asleep. “A Flamsteed designation. It’s a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. With it, we can better map the sky and find what we are looking for.”
Relationships: Neil/The Protagonist (Tenet)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 62





	scanning the sky, making a map (or: A Flamsteed Designation)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first try with Tenet. I love time loops and these two, but oh well, this wasn't easy! As per usual, you can definitely point out any grammar mistakes, so I can fix those! Comments are greatly appreciated.

I

The ice cubes in your glass clink against each other; the room is coated with sunlight that clings to you like fine dust; you glow - _everything glows!_ \- and the time refuses to stop no matter how much I beg it to do so.

The sun seems to like you. Maybe it feels kinship: you both radiate and you have your own gravitational pull. It is subtle (at least at first), but there nevertheless, and the further you drift, the more it hurts.

Or maybe the sun feels you understand it better than most of us. You, with your rationality, your major in physics, your easy talk about theories and probabilities and inevitabilities.

But now you are silent, and the room is silent, and only the sunlight talks and tells me how the day passes and soon there’ll be one less moment, a little less time to spend with you.

II

“Have you considered infinity?” you ask, and the word stretches between us. “That with the algorithm time can become an endless loop.”

“Not endless”, I answer, because I already know. I know where this ends - where your story ends. “Not infinite.”

“Hmm-mmh”, you nod. “Maybe not. We are all getting older nevertheless - I’m pretty sure this won’t solve it. But almost. You get second chances. There are people who’d pay anything for -”

I can’t let you finish that sentence - it is too heavy, too much.

So I kiss you, and even through your surprise, you kiss me back.

III

“There is this thing”, you say and your words are groggy, you are almost asleep. “A Flamsteed designation. It’s a combination of a number and constellation name that uniquely identifies most naked eye stars in the modern constellations visible from southern England. With it, we can better map the sky and find what we are looking for.”

“And?” I ask.

“Nothing”, you say and stare at the ceiling. “I just thought you might want to know.”

“Why?”

“It’s just an interesting tidbit”, you say and fall asleep.

IV

I think about it, later, when I’m not with you. It isn’t permanent, not yet - there’s still time. Or will be. Or was - it is difficult to find right tense sometimes.

_With it, we can better map the sky and find what we are looking for._

Your kinship with the sun is also your kinship with the stars. And yes, this is what I’m doing:

Scanning the sky of time and making a map, searching for you among the endless constellations. 

Eventually I always get the designation right.


End file.
